


Strawberry Lemonade

by ardett



Series: Platonic VLD Week 2017 [5]
Category: Voltron: Legendary Defender
Genre: Alien Planet, Day At The Beach, Gen, Mentions of Drowning, Platonic VLD Week
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-03-02
Updated: 2017-03-02
Packaged: 2018-09-26 13:08:46
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,023
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/9898484
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ardett/pseuds/ardett
Summary: Keith wonders if alien planets also have giant squids.





	

**Author's Note:**

> For [Platonic VLD Week](http://platonicvldweek.tumblr.com/)
> 
> Day Five Prompt: ~~Got your back~~ / Don't let go

“Don’t let go!” Keith shrieks.

“You’re fine, Keith.” Lance holds back laugh. “Just relax.”

“If I relax, I’m going to drown!”

Keith grips Lance’s hands as the two of them float into deeper water. His feet hover inches above the sandy floor. Logically, he could push off the ocean floor and he’d be fine, but the water here is opaque and magenta and he feels likes there’s nothing but depth beneath him for miles. 

Once, he went to a museum during a school field trip where they had a life size replica of a giant squid. He had been tinier than, probably only eight or nine, but regardless, that monster was infinitely long. Some giant squids  _ ate whales. _ He imagines those mile long tentacles stretching through the ocean to wrap around his legs and pull him down, down, down, where the water pressure crushes his lungs and there’s never been any sunlight.

In this water, he can’t even see his hand when it’s submerged half a foot. They’re on an alien planet, where the sand is navy blue and the ocean looks like strawberry lemonade. Who knows what kind of huge beasts are just under the water’s surface?

Not to mention Keith can barely swim.

Pools he can deal with, where you can see specks of dust five feet under water, but floating out here is far, far worse.

_ It’s just like space, _ Lance had insisted.  _ You’re floating in whole lot of nothing out there too. _

Nothing was not Keith’s problem. It was the too much of something,  _ anything,  _ that could be in the water with them, and being unable to get away.

Even now, when they’re just kicking to stay afloat in the water, the water drags on his limbs. There’s no way they would stand a chance against any sea creatures. Humans aren’t designed for the water.

He thinks of shark fins cutting through the waves towards them and the ten feet between them and the dry sand being an impossible distance to cross fast enough.

He glances back towards the blue sands, where Pidge and Hunk are building some sort of elaborate sand castle, the sand here being slightly denser and easy to pack than the sand on Earth. He squints. The pair seems farther away than before.

“Hey, does it seem like we’re drifting away to you?”

Lance shrugs, throwing off Keith’s balance and sending him an inch deeper into the water than he would have liked. “Just a little riptide current.”

Keith feels a little sick. A little riptide, sure, a little riptide and they’re stranded miles away from shore. “Please don’t say that.”

“It’s fine, the water here is super calm.” Lance’s grasp loosens and Keith flails for a second.

“Lance…” He warns.

“Come on, there’s barely any waves at all. You got this.” And he lets go.

Keith immediately goes under.

All he sees is pink pressing in on every side of him. Shadows shade the water deep magenta beneath him and above him, the light filters in bubblegum pink. Air bubbles flurry around him, tickling along his limbs and swirling between his fingers.

It’s actually oddly pretty.

That is, until he sees a dark mass swimming towards him in the water. Raw panic seizes him and he screams, shoving all the air out of his lungs. He kicks out for the sand to get some leverage but his foot only slides over the top layer, sending a plume of useless sand up.

The dark mass snaps into clarity and suddenly, it’s Lance reaching out to pull him up to the surface.

Keith gasps for air with Lance’s hands still tight on his shoulders.

Then, he punches Lance in the face.

Lance reels back, clutching at his nose. “Dude, what the heck? I just saved you!”

“You scared me, jerk!”

“I scared you? You scared me! You were underwater for like, a whole minute! I thought you were actually drowning!”

Keith feels a little touched, but he can’t help asserting, “I was fine.”

“Okay, you don’t get to insist I can’t let you go, then insist you’re going to drown, and assume that I would know you weren’t drowning.”

“Well, I… Alright, I guess that’s fair.”

“Ha! I’m right!” Lance slams his fist into the water victoriously, sending a splash straight up into Keith’s face.

Keith blinks very, very slowly. 

“Oh, it is ON!”

“No, no!” Lance cries but he’s already smiling a dangerous smile.

Keith dives into the water, kicking water up in Lance’s direction. As he surfaces, he catches a blast well placed to the back of his head. They continue like that for a while until they’re both exhausted from treading water and Lance says, “Mercy, mercy!”

Rubbing the last bit of water out of his eyes, Keith asks, “I’m heading in. Wanna come?”

“Nah, I’m gonna float for a little.” Lance demonstrates, somehow balancing on the water’s surface on his back.

“Don’t float away. I’m not saving you from any giant squids,” smirks Keith.

“Giant squids?” Lance brow crinkles but Keith is already wading in shore.

By now, Pidge and Hunk’s sand castle has become a sand kingdom, complete with defense barracks, a great wall, peasant homes and a ruling monarch. Keith crouches down to look at the king, no, queen, closer. It’s delicately constructed from some of the purple ( _ royal purple, get it?  _ says Hunk) leaves that grow on the bushes here and embellished with tree sap. Keith gives a thumbs up before he continues his quest to find proper sustenance.

He does find some (supposedly safe) alien drinks but everything tastes like the seawater. That, of course, does not mean it tastes like saltwater because everything is literally alien to him. It’s a bit sweeter, a little weaker, than the taste of Earthen seawater. It makes Keith feel a bit more like he’s been swimming in pink lemonade, especially when it starts to dry sticky on his skin.

Eventually, Lance too leaves the water, bemoaning his pruned skin. And together, curled on the still warm sand of the beach, all the paladins watch the two suns set over the ocean.


End file.
